Canto

 1     1|        forego?~No! let me die; 'twere happiness above~A longer
 2     2|      foe;~And to the dame -- " 'Twere better that we make~For
 3     3|         at all that passed,~If 'twere a dream or a reality.~At
 4     4|        drank her virgin blood.~'Twere long to tell who launched
 5     5|     rejoined the duke, 'I ween 'twere ill~To take the battle upon
 6     9|         The people one and all: Twere long to tell~How she caressed
 7    13|        pass in silence by,~For 'twere too much (as said before)
 8    13|   Renata I behold.~ ~ LXXIII~" 'Twere long to tell of Alda de
 9    15|         youth was yet her own,~'Twere not a thing to brook --
10    16|         I can speak of them as 'twere my art.~Hence if I say,
11    16|         When him so killed, as 'twere by stealthy blow,~Chelindo
12    17|       of that solemnity;~-- If 'twere a wonted feast, held every
13    17|      for with sword and spear.~'Twere long to tell who so unworthily~
14    17|    scandal of the warlike art.~'Twere better he from tower, a
15    18|     load we bear, and fly:~For 'twere a foolish thought (might
16    19|   battle, I concede.~No honour 'twere to-day to prove my might~
17    19|        so large a space of day~'Twere very shame to spend it all
18    19|     that till to-morrow's morn~'Twere better thou prolonged thy
19    20| confident withal:~And likelier 'twere that by my hand should die~
20    20|     thee," replied the peer,~" `Twere ill that she were claimed
21    23|       he haughtily had sought?~'Twere forty to waste time in an
22    24|       different way.~He is, as 'twere, a forest, where parforce~
23    24|       and after showed~(Though 'twere too tedious to recount his
24    24|         an example shew.~Next, 'twere far better, deemed the cavalier,~
25    26|      return afield."~ ~ CXV~-- "Twere not so easy to obtain this
26    26|        to obtain this quest~As 'twere that other," Rodomont replied;~
27    28|         other's door.~ ~ L~"-- 'Twere best to find a girl whose
28    29|         lost, believed,~Unless 'twere as a gift from her received;~ ~
29    29|   bridge tower, and cell.~ ~ L~'Twere phrensy of his every frantic
30    32|         virtues holds so high,~'Twere need some heaven-born goddess
31    32|        yield,~But that in rain 'twere worse to lodge afield.~ ~
32    32|     that damsel should concede~'Twere hard, before I yield to
33    34|  recount.~ ~ LXXXIII~It was as 'twere a liquor soft and thin,~
34    36|        Your quarrel leave;~For 'twere a deed unjust and inhumane,~
35    37|       damsels made,~Prompt, if 'twere needed, to bestow his aid.~ ~
36    37|      dame;~Who deems, at court 'twere shameful to appear,~Unless
37    38|       face,~All thither troop; 'twere tedious to tell how~Rinaldo
38    38|       Albracca pressed.~ ~ XXI~'Twere long to tell how, with those
39    39|         yet delights your ear,~'Twere well and wisely done to
40    40|        believed,~But would, if 'twere opposed, at last give way,~
41    42|         toil, and cried,~"Here 'twere not ill, meseemeth, to repose."~-- "
42    42|       said.~He cannot guess if 'twere a magic sprite,~A fiend
43    43|       beneath that cruel blow,~'Twere long to say; how prostrate
44    46|       such cost and care~As if 'twere for a daughter of his own.~